Scorpio Sons 1: Colton (15 page)

At the hotel two of Alzhir's men climbed out and waited to accompany her to her room. She was terrified Alzhir would decide to come with her and make good on his threat. After being with Colt, the very thought of Alzhir touching her was repulsive. But if her parent's lives hung in the balance, her own feelings would have to be subjugated. No matter what, she'd do what had to be done to save those she loved.

Gone was the show of gentlemanly attention Alzhir had previously lavished on her, as he impatiently waited for her to get out of the vehicle without him. His parting words would have cut her deeply had she any finer feelings left for him.

"Hurry up and get out. You have taken up far too much of my time already today. And you have work to get on with, too. You're a commodity, Alyssa, no more than that to me now. As such, you will succeed, or suffer the consequences. But don't get too comfortable with my absence. When I have time, I'll expect you to service me as you did Blake."

Numbed, hopeless and defeated, Alyssa slid across the leather upholstery and let the guards walk her to the glass doors. She didn't even look back.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They'd been placed in the barred-off section at the back of two separate patrol cars. As Colt stared moodily out the window he listened to the tinny, crackling voice of Dispatch and the jovial chatter between the two officers in the front seat. They were overjoyed the bust had gone so smoothly. Having expected a fight, even gunfire, they were relieved their suspects had come quietly. It was the kind of arrest they all dreamed of.

After making it through the worst of the traffic around LAX, the cruisers took the freeway into downtown Los Angeles. Colt knew that any rescue mission wouldn't occur on the freeway. A high-speed chase might look good in the movies but it was hell to control. Where possible, they endeavoured to keep collateral damage to a minimum. Listening to the cops in the front seat talk about their wives and kids made him even more determined that their escape would occur without loss of life.

When they turned off the freeway and entered the inner city traffic of the financial district, he tensed up. Both he and Colt had sub-dermal trackers implanted, and Alyssa had one in her coat, as well as one on driver's licence. His people would know exactly where to find them when they were ready. And they could be ready any moment. It was forty minutes since Connor had relayed their situation; more than enough time to mount a rescue mission.

Almost as if he'd conjured it with his mind, a huge garbage truck pulled across the road and stopped, blocking traffic in both directions. He heard the cops muttering in the front seat, but they didn't seem to realise the truck was anything but a minor inconvenience. Out of nowhere, a heavily armed tactical unit appeared. Two masked men smashed in the front-side windows on his squad car and pressed the muzzles of semi-automatics to the heads of the two startled officers. He didn't need to look behind him to know that something similar was occurring at the other cruiser.

"Hands where I can see them," came the order like a volley of bullets.

The cops jerked in their seats and slowly lifted their hands. In the next moment, the back door was yanked open and he was running for the nearest alley, his arms still handcuffed behind his back. He heard the thud of boots following in his wake. One of the men who'd stood point, turned to lead the way to the van parked in the next alley.

When they'd all bundled into the unmarked, windowless vehicle, the engine roared to life and took off to join the traffic on the street at the far end of the alley. The whole carefully choreographed rescue-mission had taken mere minutes to execute.

Colt finally drew his first real breath since the airport. He glanced over at Connor sitting against the other wall of the van beside three of their silent rescuers. Another three masked men sat on his side and a fourth was placed directly behind the driver with a small IT suite, including two screens, set up in front of him.

As one of the men removed his handcuffs he gave voice to his greatest fear. "He's got her."

"I know. But he's unlikely to damage the golden goose," Connor replied stiffly.

"Unless he knows what we are… What she is. Then he'll take her to the Guild."

"What does her tracker say?" Connor looked over at the tech who was monitoring traffic.

The man said nothing until he'd keyed in information and the image on the screen had changed to a blipping red dot on a map of downtown LA. Then he gave them the answer Colt needed to hear. "Just pulled up outside the Grand Regent."

Colt breathed a sigh of relief. Akabar had taken Alyssa to her hotel. That meant he was allowing her to go on with her performance. Therefore, it was unlikely he had any inkling of Alyssa's true nature. Her life was safe, but what of her wellbeing?

He wouldn't put it past the bastard to rape her as punishment for whatever crime Akabar believed they'd committed. It didn't matter that Alyssa hadn't loved Colt enough to believe in him, the thought of her hurt in any way was enough to unhinge him. This was more than his cat needing its mate. This was the man unwilling to allow harm to come to the woman he loved.

"We need to get her! She's compromised. We have to get her out."

"You might be right. Now we're free, Akabar will tighten his net around Alyssa. Right now, he thinks she's safe from us…" Connor said thoughtfully.

"Patch me through to Chase," Colt ordered.

Almost immediately a face appeared on the second screen.

"Status?" Chase asked brusquely.

"Connor and I have been successfully retrieved with no casualties. Alyssa has been taken to her hotel by Akabar. An APB will go out on us any minute, if it hasn't already. We have to get Alyssa away before Akabar finds out we're free and moves her to more secure surroundings."

"I have another team moving on the hotel as we speak. How much interference should they expect?"

"Two guards only. Unless Akabar has hired more men, I imagine he's divided his four-man protective detail in half. It would be the perfect time to take him down too, while he has limited protection. How close are we to having the evidence we need?"

Chase spoke to Caleb off-screen and then looked back at Colt. "We've tracked his calls in Rio and have located his operations there. Our men on the ground will take the warehouse in an hour. We expect to have all the evidence we need on Akabar at that point."

"He might have increased his protection by then."

"We've cancelled the APB. It is unlikely Akabar will know of your escape, in the short term. Get to the safe-house and await further orders."

"I need to…"

"Stand down, Colt. We don't want you playing knight errant. E Unit is capable and knows Alyssa's importance. They'll retrieve her and bring her to you."

Colt sighed heavily. It went against his cat's programming to sit on the side-lines while others saved his woman, but he saw the sense in it. Having his cat come out in front of survivors of the assault, who might tell of it, was unacceptable.

"You have permission to be part of the team to take down Akabar. That should soothe your cat a little," Chase added, as if he understood how difficult it was for him to leave Alyssa to someone else's protection.

He jerked a nod and the screen went black.

"They'll get her. You know the bros know how valuable she is. They'll put their lives on the line for her, just as I would. This is not just about you and her. Remember, we're in this together…all of us."

The other Sons had removed their masks and nodded their agreement. He knew what Connor said was true but it didn't make it any easier. If anything happened to her he'd never survive it. She had become the centre of his Universe in a few short days. Everything else came second, even the Sons and their mission.

It all happened without drama. As soon as Alyssa had entered the suite she'd been upgraded to after making the finals, she'd gone straight to the mini-bar. Alcohol wasn't her usual way of handling her problems, but with Colt in jail and Alzhir making threats against her and her parents, she felt helpless to do anything else.

She'd barely had time to pour a Rum and Coke when the door opened and a familiar face appeared. Her heart lifted for a split-second before she realised the man who was silently gesturing for her to come to him wasn't Colt or Connor. This member of the Scorpio Sons wore a goatee and a diamond in his ear. His hair was covered by a black, knitted cap that was probably a balaclava.

At first Alyssa didn't hesitate. If the Sons had come for her, they knew she was in danger. She had to let them get her away. But just as she reached the door she paused, rethinking her knee-jerk desire to take the first chance at escape offered her. What if Alzhir carried out his threat when he found out she'd escaped? Everything inside her told her to run, to escape while she could. But instead, she shook her head.

"I can't go. Alzhir will hurt my parents if I don't do what he says."

For a moment, her rescuer looked surprised, then impatient.

Finally, he nodded as he considered the problem. "We'll have them taken to a safe-house immediately. We have their address?"

"Yes… Are you sure you can get to them before Alzhir?"

"Akabar doesn't know there's a problem yet. He won't until his men don't report in. By then we'll have your parents in hiding. Once Akabar is taken down, they can return to their home."

Sighing in relief, Alyssa took the last step to freedom. It felt wonderful to have a strong, protective arm around her as she was hustled down the stairs to the basement parking lot, but a nagging voice in the back of her mind kept reminding her that it wasn't Colt's arm. He was still in danger.

By the time she was bustled into the back of a white van in the basement and the vehicle took off, she was mildly winded from the exertion. They'd taken the stairs cat-fast, covering the floors almost too fast to follow with the naked eye. Fleetingly she wondered about the security cameras in the stairwell, but then dismissed the concern, knowing these men were professionals. If they thought they could move at high speed undetected then who was she to argue?

Half an hour later, the white van pulled up and the goateed Son reached over to open the back door at the same time as someone on the other side slid the door back violently. This time the familiar face looking in at her was the one she had wanted to see: Colt! He was free and safe.

"Lyss," Colt cried, looking ready to drag her out of the back of the van so he could wrap her in a bear-hug. But he remained in place, tentatively waiting for her to make the first move. Why was he suddenly so unsure of himself?

Then she remembered the look in his eyes as she let Akabar lead her away. Surely he hadn't believed her act, had he?

Clambering out of the back of the van, she threw herself at him. For a spit second he stiffened, then his arms came around her, and she felt a shudder run the full length of his body before he relaxed fully. She clung to him as tears overwhelmed her.

"I was so scared. I thought you'd go to prison. I thought I'd be enslaved by Alzhir. He… He threatened mom and dad if I didn't win the competition. He was going to… He was going to…" A wave of misery washed over her and she couldn't find words to finish describing his threats.

Colt stroked her hair almost reverently. "You're safe now. And your parents will be safe soon, too. Everything's okay."

She laughed as she cried and nodded. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. One minute she thought her life was over, the next everything was perfect once more. Or almost perfect. There was still Alzhir to deal with. And the competition. How could she perform if she was in hiding?

Did it matter? When she thought she'd lost Colt everything else had lost meaning. Her music was important to her, but it was nothing compared to her love for Colt and her parents, and maybe even the cause they all fought for. Her dreams of performing seemed inconsequential in comparison.

"Come on. You need a shower, clean clothes and food. I feel like I've burned so many calories worrying about you that I could eat half a cow."

"So what's new, boyo? I think you've got a worm or sumthin'. It's not natural how much you eat."

Alyssa caught sight of Connor, out of the corner of her eye, grinning like a loon.

She dragged herself away from Colt so she could launch herself at the Irish brother. "Jackass! I was worried about you."

Connor's cheeks reddened and he seemed pleased by her sentiments. He didn't even gloat when Colt came to claim back what was his, this time with confidence.

"You've signed on with a professional team, song-bird. There was no way we were going to jail any time soon. But it's nice to know you care." He wriggled his brows to make a joke of his last words.

They'd barely settled Alyssa into the safe-house and eaten a much-needed meal when the green light was given for an attack on Akabar. It was a quickly thrown together plan that Colt could already see holes in, but time was of the essence. They had to act fast if they were to take the man when he was at his weakest; unaware of what was occurring in Rio or to Alyssa.

"Cal is heading up the mission with G Unit," Chase had told Colt and Connor, via video link-up, as they finished up their meal. "They've been running scenarios for the last hour working out the wrinkles, and they're as confident as they can be that they've got a plan that will work. But I want you and Connor in on it, too. Just in case there are more targets than we're expecting. I don't have to remind you, Akabar must be taken alive. No going vigilante on this one, Colt."

"I have no desire to give that bastard a fast and easy death. I'll relish watching him squirm in terror as he stands trial for his crimes and then faces death," Colt had replied through clenched teeth.

And it had been the truth. His cat might demand retribution of the swift and bloody kind, but the man wanted more. He wanted to see Akabar pay fully for his threats against Alyssa and the terror he'd caused her.

It was going to be another Blitz attack. Akabar was currently at the recording studio, but Intel had him leaving for an afternoon meeting across town in less than an hour. The route had been plotted and a suitably large vehicle commandeered for the job. As long as the tactical unit was on the ground to move in at a moment's notice they should be able to take Akabar with little resistance.